Fourth Midweek Lenten Service

Jesse Jacobsen

Time-stamp: "Wed Mar 2 15:03:00 2005",
printed

John 16:32--33

``Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.''
At the Last Supper, Jesus knew what the next day would bring. He taught much to His disciples, and the evangelist John wrote much of it down. Jesus was preparing them to face the world without him, because He was about to return to the Father. The treatment that He was about to receive beginning that night is the same treatment that Jesus has received from this world as a whole ever since. Betrayal. Abuse. Mockery. Scorn. Torture. Death.

This was how Jesus finished His time on earth. After that, He no longer lived on Earth the same way, though He could have. When He rose from the dead, Jesus lived in a new era, an era He had made Himself by His death on the cross. First, He was humbled, then He was glorified. That was the order He established forever: first suffering, then glory.

Jesus lives. He lives bodily by virtue of Easter, but He also lives in other ways. Jesus is here right now, for we are His Church. We are called the body of Christ, built as a living temple of members. Granted, we are not perfect like Jesus, but that doesn't matter. You see, being the body of Christ comes from faith in Him alone, and not from our own merit. Then again, we may not all believe in Him, deep in our hearts. It's quite possible that there are hypocrites mixed into the visible congregations of our Lord's Church. But again, it doesn't matter. As surely as we have the Gospel of Christ in His Word and the Sacraments, we can be certain that there are also believers in this assembly. So it is a sacred assembly, the body of Christ. Jesus is still here in His Church.

Jesus is present on earth in other ways, too. He is the Word of God, and the written and spoken Word still goes out from heaven like a rain, watering the earth and causing faith to grow even in unlikely places. Where the Word goes, Jesus goes. The same for the sacraments, the visible Word of God. When He was baptized, Jesus attached His own righteousness to that sacrament. The name we invoke when we baptize is His, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is there. He is also there whenever a Christian forgives the sins of another, and in a special way when a Christian speaks forgiveness on God's behalf, as the minister of someone who needs God's forgiveness. Jesus is there. And of course, at the very center of the Church's worship life, there is the Lord's Supper. Jesus is the host of that supper, inviting us for refreshment to sup from the eternal wedding banquet. Jesus is also the food. His command to eat and drink tells us that this holy food from the cross will sanctify both our souls and bodies forever. In this way, Jesus helps, guides, sustains, and ever carries us on our way from earth to heaven.

But that path is not easy. First suffering, then glory. If that was the way He had to take, we should expect no different. The Word of Jesus and His Sacraments also must suffer on earth. They are attacked and disparaged and forgotten and suppressed. The Gospel must suffer all of this, because of God's love for sinful man. Jesus told His disciples that they would abandon Him, and they did. How easy it has become for us to abandon our Savior when we fear the world's wrath against His Word! In the face of hard questions and embarassment, how loosely do we hold to our Lord's Supper, and to Baptism! We share that unreliable nature with Jesus' own disciples.

As Christians, we want to be found faithful at the return of our Master. Yet His return is delayed, and we are hard pressed outwardly and torn inwardly. If, by God's grace, we are renewed in our devotion, then we come to Him in sorrow, and Jesus freely forgives us. We are washed anew by the same baptism, and nursed to health on the food of our Lord's body and blood. But the stronger our faith, the more boldly we must speak the Gospel. We believe, and therefore we speak. ``For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'' So the more Jesus strengthens us as Christians, the more we come to resemble ... Him.

As Christ had mercy upon the weak, and comforted the hurting, now He does the same through His Christians. As Christ spoke strongly against all that is wrong, and proclaimed forgiveness and peace for the whole world, so we speak today. The body of Christ today continues His work in the world --- not just pastors, but everyone. ``We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness.'' But the more faithfully we perform this work, being conformed to the image of Christ, the more resistance we will experience. Jesus Himself was crucified. Most of His apostles were martyred. For generations, to this very day, Christians are being tortured and killed for no other reason than that they confess that Jesus Christ is our risen Lord.

Generally speaking, this is the cross that is given by God to every Christian. As Jesus bore His cross, so must we. As He passed through suffering first to obtain glory, so must we. The difference is that Jesus is the Lamb of God, whose suffering has taken away the sin of the world. Our sufferings are not worthy to be compared to His, but He set the pattern and established the way of salvation for the whole world. We are now privileged to follow in that way, having been washed clean by the power of His blood.

Jesus predicted to us: ``These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'' Indeed, He has. Jesus destroyed the power of death, took away its sting. He forgives our sins even now, and will bring us to the place He has prepared for us. So don't be troubled by the cross. It's a companion we have for our short journey toward heaven. We can't put it down yet, but that time is coming soon. For now, let Jesus help you bear it, because He knows the way. Find your rest in His forgiveness, and your strength in His Sacraments. Jesus is here for you. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!

This document was translated from LATEX by HEVEA.